


Breakdown

by Shaladaze



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Cannon Violence, Complete, Mild Language, Panic Attacks, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Well for Karma anyway, a needle, blood descriptions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 08:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20132704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaladaze/pseuds/Shaladaze
Summary: Nagisa mentally curses himself for not seeing the signs sooner. It had all been there, the frantic movements, the eyes flicking to the time, the snappish comments that were just on the edge of too far, the repeated attempts to start a fight. It had all been there blaring in his face and he hadn’t noticed a single one.





	1. Chapter 1

Nagisa mentally curses himself for not seeing the signs sooner. It had all been there, the frantic movements, the eyes flicking to the time, the snappish comments that were just on the edge of too far, the repeated attempts to start a fight. It had all been there blaring in his face and he hadn’t noticed a single one.

In front of the entire class Karma had started screaming and griping his hair so hard it must hurt. Shouting at everyone with panic so raw it made his amber eyes almost sickly yellow. It’s a fragile situation that could have been avoided but it hadn’t been.

Nagisa pushes everyone out of his way as he slowly approaches the redhead. Arms pinned to his sides.

He keeps his voice as soft as he can, “Karma, Hey, it’s me, Nagisa.”

As he gets closer, the redhead starts to shake his head, his teeth baring at him in a wicked snarl. He tries to ignore his teachers protesting behind him.

“Karma, you’re safe here, you know that. None of us are going to fight you.”

Nagisa notices too late he had used one of the trigger words. Since his arms had been kept down, he avoids getting cut immediately, but that means his head is left open. With a flash of silver and jerky movements, the redhead swipes at him with a knife from his sleeve, a real one. Blood oozes out of Nagisa’s face as he tries to roll with the hit, better to be scraped than dead.

Shouts of alarm are quickly followed by footsteps. His warning is cut short when he gets shoved to the ground so hard he loses his breathe.

Someone helps him sit up and he’s quick to stand on his feet, gasping a little from the impact.

Kayano is holding his arm tightly as she yells, “What were you thinking Nagisa?! Are you crazy?!”

Looking around him frantically, he sees Karma’s retreating form and starts a dead sprint towards him. If he got too much of a head start he wouldn’t be able to catch up in time.

“Nagisa! Stop! That’s an order!”

He keeps his eyes trained on the figure before him as he shouts back, “I can’t! If he gets too far away he won’t come back!”

He doesn’t see their reaction as the redhead barrels through the tree line, his figure harder to see. Slightly panicked, Nagisa picks up his pace chasing the other as fast as he humanly can.

Nagisa must be the luckiest person alive because when Karma stumbles, he doesn’t regain his balance as quickly as he usually does. Using all of his strength he tackles the taller student to the ground, rolling them out to a clearing of grass just before a ledge.

Karma hits him hard, trying to get out from under his weight but it doesn’t work. Nagisa does his best to Koala hug the other to keep him from getting away despite the pain he’s in. A sharp hit to his gut has him letting go and dry heaving.

Panic still high, he’s thankful when Terasaka comes full force out of the trees, grabbing the redhead and wrestling with him to keep him from moving.

“I hope you have a plan pip-squeak, because-“ he grunts when Karma jerks his head back and makes contact with the others jaw.

Nagisa stands up and tries to grab at the struggling students shirt but is quickly thwarted when a foot pushes him dangerously close to the ledge.

Fumbling he shouts back, “Pin him down!”

Luckily the stronger of the two students wasn’t Karma. They fall to the ground with a thud, hard enough to have them both winded. Once a few other male students catch up, getting a grasp of what’s happening they jump in and try to help pin the rampaging student so he can’t move.

This however, sets the redhead off in a different kind of way when he realizes he can’t get away. He starts screaming so loudly a few students have to cover their ears, leaving him an opening he could have used if Nagisa wasn’t prepared for it.

Lunging, he sits on the other’s chest and rips off his left coat sleeve. Ignoring the confused looks and questions so he can reach what he’s looking for.

Finally, his fingers make contact with something cold and he’s secretly thankful it’s still there. Ripping off the safety cap, he grabs Karma’s face and wretches it to the side before jamming the needle into his neck.

Karma freezes, his eyes widening before drooping, his limbs going suddenly lax.

Once it’s empty, Nagisa is quick to drop the syringe and push the others away, “Ok, let go of him. Stop touching him for a minute.”

They all back off as he moves to cradle the others head in his lap and watch his face. Karma’s breathing levels quickly, his body relaxed but his eyes, though hooded as they were, move frantically on the edges of panic.

Making sure his movements can be seen, Nagisa takes his hair out of their pigtails and lets it fall. He wouldn’t normally do this but it was the only thing that would help at this point. Once he’s done he gets into Karma’s face to get his attention and smiles.

“You’re safe Karma. Stop fighting it. You know it only makes it worse.”

Amber eyes stay fixed on sky blue until they finally close. Sleep overtaking the redheads form.

Sighing heavily, Nagisa leans back feeling like he’d been hit by a truck.

Okajima is the first to break the silence, “Ok, what the hell just happened?”

Nagisa groans when he realizes he will have to give some kind of explanation, “I’ll tell you what I can, but let’s get back first. I don’t want to do this here.”

Wordlessly, the class moves to head back. Mr. Karasuma picking up Karma and Koro-Sensei dashing away, something about preparing a bed. A few fret over the blunette but he brushes it off, his thoughts racing as he tries to think about what to do.


	2. Chapter 2

Akabane and Nagisa were walking home when it happened. Some guys tried to jump them, to this day Nagisa can’t remember if they were being robbed or beat up but it didn’t matter, since the memory is tainted in blood anyway.

A couple of guys had dragged them into an alleyway, brandishing weapons and threatening them. Nagisa remembers that Akabane had been shaking violently and at first he thought it was because of fear. Then the redhead started to laugh.

“Oh, you’ve made my day! I’ve been itching for a fight since this morning.”

The next thing the blunette knew, hands were being thrown. Akabane had pulled a knife out of seemingly nowhere and proceeded to beat the men with all he had. A few of them got a good hit in on him but it didn’t seem to do anything to stop the teen. Nagisa had been so afraid he hid behind the dumpster, refusing to look as the fight went on.

Eventually, the shouting stopped, but it was quickly replaced with maniacal laughter. Confused and worried, he had peaked out to see what was happening, what he saw would haunt him when he was alone.

Akabane was standing over one of the passed out men, laughing to the sky like his life depended on it. Blood was covering most of his arms, staining his clothes a deep red, and when he turned to face the blunette, his face was equally as splattered. But the unhinged look of madness on his face was what really gave him nightmares.

Fear like Nagisa had never known had gripped his heart when the redhead had only responded by laughing harder, if it was even possible, and walk towards him. Not knowing what else to do, he had stood up and held out his hands.

“A-Akabane, w-wait! Hold on! Please don’t hurt me!”

His words seemed to snap the redhead out of whatever state of mind he was in because his face twisted into one of confusion. His hand lifting to his face before pulling back and looking at it. There was an audible pause before the teen had started to shake his head and hyperventilate. Verging on panic. Then he was reaching into his left sleeve and pulling out a syringe, only to jam it into his own arm as fast as possible.

Nagisa had lunged forward when Akabane had started to sway dangerously, grabbing him under the arms and helping him sit down. They didn’t speak for a long drawn out moment, while the blunette tried to ignore the blood on his own hands.

“Sa sleep drug.”

Sky blue eyes look down at sleepy Amber ones, “What?”

The redhead had scooted to the wall and leaned back, exhaustion radiating from his form, “I had to use a sleep drug. I don’t think I’ll be moving for a while.”

Nagisa tilts his head, “Well, you’re speaking pretty clearly.”

Akabane scoffs, “Sorta. Can’t think right.”

Timidly, the smaller teen moves closer, ignoring the dripping sounds, “What happened?”

The taller teen lets his head fall back, “I have a medical problem. My brain releases adrenaline in extensive amounts, to the point that I can’t feel pain. The only problem with this is it keeps releasing it when it gets triggered. That’s why I attacked them.” He moved slowly as he pointed to where he had grabbed the syringe, “The doctors had prescribed me a stupid expensive drug and I didn’t want to pay for it so I found an alternative.” He then gestured to the empty glass, “It’s a cheap sleeping drug that I keep in my sleeve at all times. Most of the time I forget about it.”

Nagisa had come to the understanding that Karma doesn’t stop talking while drugged because he’s never talked this much before.

“It stops the rampage.”

“And makes you sleepy.”

“Yeah.”

“Why did you tell me this?”

Amber eyes had turned to look at him, “I’ve never had someone I needed to protect from me before. This is the second time in my life I’ve used this stuff.”

Nagisa rubs his head to whipe away the memory. It wasn’t the best one he had of his classmate but it was the most genuine. He had almost completely forgotten about it until they had seen each other again, and even after that he only caught glimpses of that blood stained person.

He sits on the bed that Koro-Sensei had dragged into the class, somehow, waiting for its occupant to wake up. He’s already had to refuse to talk about what happened a couple of times and it was starting to wear him out, but he could not, would not, tell them what he knew unless Karma was ok with it. They had made a promise after all.

“Nagisa, how long have you known about Karma’s… condition?”

The blunette looks up at Mr. Karasuma and tries not to let his foul mood make him snappy, “A while.”

“And you didn’t inform us because…?” Professor Bitch is standing close by, looking exasperated.

Nagisa lets his head fall into his hands, “I forgot about it ok? I’ve known and I didn’t see the signs and I messed up and I’m sorry ok? But I can’t talk to you about it until he wakes up.”

The room falls silent at his declaration. He doesn’t bother to see what kind of faces their making or if they were trying to have a silent conversation. He couldn’t bend on this. Not this time.

Nagisa tries to remember the rest of that horrifying day.

“Isn’t this something you could be hospitalized for?”

A laugh, “They tried but I was too stable for them to keep in the hospital. See they tried to keep me in a controlled environment with low stress and few chances to get the adrenaline pumping but the big problem was I got bored easy. And when I got bored I got violent. And violent me,”

“Was exactly the opposite of what they wanted.”

“Bingo.” Akabane finishes putting on his clean shirt before they leave the park bathrooms, “So, since my parents were stupid rich and didn’t want to have to deal with the surpluse hospital bills, they payed to have me let out and I haven’t gone back since.”

They walk past a fountain on their way to the gates.

“You must think I’m pretty messed up huh?”

Nagisa looks down at the ground, “I don’t think you’re messed up.” When the other looks at him surprised he continues, “You just have a mental condition that makes you violent, but you showed some great control over it just now, by not attacking me and I think that says a lot about you.”

The redhead stops walking, staring at him like he’s seeing him for the first time, “You’ve seen something like that before.”

It’s not a question.

Without saying anything, Nagisa nods his head, he had seen something like that, “My mom.” He swallows hard, “She uh… she wanted a girl. She can get… a little intense.”

The redheads hands form into fists, “Sorry, I reminded you of that then.”

The blunette shakes his head, “You didn’t remind me of her. I know when she gets like that and there’s nothing I can do, she doesn’t think anything is wrong with her so she won’t accept help.”

Akabane stays silent before waking up to him, “Hey, if you ever need me to defend you, let me know.”

Nagisa smiles weakly at him, “Sure. And if it helps at all, I can try and help you with your rampages?”

The taller teen seems to think about this, “I guess it wouldn’t be a bad thing to tell you. Alright, why not?” he moves back to the fountain and sits down, “Take a seat, mind as well be comfortable.”

The smaller teen sits down next to him and waits.

“Well, first off. I always store a dose of the sleeping drug in my left sleeve. If I have short sleeves on, it moves to my chest but in the same area. You have to inject it into my arm since I don’t trust you to get it in my neck right, it works faster but it’s more dangerous. Second, if I start to freak out, short hair bothers me.”

Nagisa interrupts, “Short hair?”

“Yeah. Most men wear it short and I’m more likely to attack them because I generally want to fight something. This is because the adrenaline makes it so I can’t feel anything and I will do basically anything to feel again.”

The blunette nods in understanding.

“Lastly, I have trigger words when I’m like that. If you use the words fight, weapon, a name of a weapon, or the word useless, I will attack you.”

Nagisa makes a mental note of that, “I think I can remember that.”

“Cool. You’ll stay alive longer if you keep it memorized.”

The blunette nods, going over everything in his head when the others words stop him short.

“What about you? What should I avoid doing?”

Mildly surprised, Nagisa looks to the other, “Things you shouldn’t do? Like triggers?”

“Yeah, What should I avoid doing to you? I can get pretty cruel and I don’t want to overstep boundaries when you’re trying your best to help me.”

He takes a second to think about it, “Hmm, probably don’t touch my hair. And I’m not really comfortable talking about my family so don’t push those. Uhhh.”

“What about when others say you look like a girl?”

Nagisa flinches, “Definitely don’t do that. I hate being compared to females.”

Akabane holds up his hands in surrender, “Sorry. I’ll try to stay away from that one but I don’t think you look that much like a girl to begin with.”

The memory fades when someone pokes his side, “Hey.”

Looking behind him he sees Karma frowning in his direction, “Why are you making that face?”

Distant echoes in his mind distract him for a moment.

“Oh and Shiota?”

“Yeah?”

“Call me Karma.”

“Nagisa.”

Giving his best smile he pokes the other back, “I wouldn’t have to if you had just said something.”

Karma sits up and stretches, “Yeah whatever. It wouldn’t have changed anything.”

Nagisa rolls his eyes, “Right.”

Kayano jumps in their conversation, “He’s awake so now you have to tell us what happened!”

Karma quirks an eyebrow, “Tell you about what?”

Kayano puffs her cheeks, “About what happened during gym! Why do you start attacking everyone? And screaming? What was that about?”

Nagisa cringes before looking at Karma, the redhead has his eyebrows drawn together, seemingly irritated with what the girl is saying.

She stops babbling when Nakamura lays a hand on her shoulder, “Geez, calm down girl. Give them a minute to think.”

To anyone else, Karma’s next move would have gone unnoticed, or at least disregarded, but Nagisa has practice. The redhead shifts his shoulders just enough to move the fabric around his arm. “Everyone saw that huh?”

Nagisa opens his mouth only to be interrupted by Terasaka, “Hell Yeah we did. Then the little pip-squeak over here stabbed you in the neck with a needle. If it wasn’t for the fact you didn’t seem like you were in the right mind, I woulda punched your lights out.”

Fear spikes in the blunette as he whips his head around to focus on the teen behind him. Even though he was just shaking off the drug, he could easily re-laps and they both know he only carries one dose.

Luckily, the grin on his face isn’t feral, “I’d like to see you try.”

Terasaka rises to the bait only to be cut off by the redhead, “But. I’m too tired for this, so I’ll give you the short end of the stick.” He lays his head down on his arms, “I have an adrenaline condition, and before you make jokes about it, I’m not an adrenaline junkie. My brain is broken and once that little button in your brain is pushed that creates adrenaline it doesn’t stop. Like, ever.”

Nagisa takes note of how Karma is talking, it’s almost ridiculous, considering how he usually acts.

“It keeps going to the point I don’t feel pain. So I will do everything in my power to feel something again because even soft touches and basic contact with someone else makes it feel like I’m touching air. So I hit things, and stab and get hit and get stabbed in return. I still don’t feel things so I’ll start doing all of it to myself.”

This part is new to the brunettes ears, somewhere in the back of his mind he might have understood what he meant by ‘do everything possible to feel’ but not to that extent.

“The only thing that makes me stop is a stupid ass drug that cost thousands of dollars and I don’t want to pay that for a single shot, so I came up with a different idea and now I take sleeping stuff to stop me. I usually forget about it.”

The class turns collective stares to each other and Nagisa, anything from horror to plain confusion lacing their features.

He holds up a hand, “Just, try to keep an open mind. I know it’s a lot but Karma only talks this much when he’s drugged.”

A pinch to his side has him leaping off the bed with a yelp, “OW!”

“Shut it, Princess.”

The words only sting slightly, he knows it’s a teasing jab but it still gets him sometimes, “Karma, go back to sleep. I’ll try and explain to them further and answer any questions they have.”

Said teen grumbles before relaxing into the bed, his amber eyes closing soon after.

It would take a while for questions and answers to be given, then even longer when they ask for the original story and explanation, but eventually the class comes to an understanding and accepts their crazy classmate is still the same person. They just have a better understanding of who he is and how to stop him next time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a one shot that ended up being 2 chapters. So sue me.


End file.
